Lawson was Attorney-General in the Liberal government of Henry Campbell-Bannerman[1] and had been MP for Leeds South since 1892 when he himself won the seat at a by-election.

[6] Perhaps to enable the local Conservatives to overcome this problem, Fairfax-Lucy diplomatically announced that he was not able to stand for Parliament at this time because he was too busy with the Territorial Force Association in Warwickshire of which he was chairman.

[7] At a meeting on 27 January 1908, the local Conservative organisation in Leeds South adopted R J Neville, the Recorder of Bury St Edmunds as their candidate.

[2] The Labour candidate at the 1906 general election, Albert E. Fox, the secretary of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen expressed his desire to stand again at the by-election but members of a rival railway trade union, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants had protested against his candidacy and this caused some doubt over Labour's participation.

[15] It was reported he and his supporters had started campaigning in Leeds [14] but by the end of the month Pointer had withdrawn from the field, the internal struggles in the Labour organisation having taken their toll.

Neville also opposed the Licensing Bill, which proposed restoration of local control of drinking establishments, a reduction in the number of public houses and the abolition of certain rights to compensation of suppressed licence-holders.

[17] Neville called this an attempt to confiscate without full and reasonable compensation the interests of the property of a trade which has received the sanction and encouragement of the state.

[13] They were apparently unable to make good the threat, as it was reported at the beginning of February that the suffragettes had confined their campaign to the handing out of leaflets,[16] although both Mary Gawthorpe and Emmeline Pankhurst visited the constituency before the election to campaign against Middlebrook [21] and one source records that one suffragette organiser arranged twenty-two meetings in one week alone.

[10] Middlebrook held the seat for the Liberals with a majority of 359 votes over Neville who restored the Conservatives to second place, Fairfax-Lucy having come bottom of the poll at the 1906 general election.

The government continued to lose by-elections down to the next general election in January 1910 but they held many seats too, an indicator that the tide of public opinion was not flowing irreversibly away from the Liberal Party.